Champions? That’s a bit rich for an expansion independent league team.

Laugh no more. Today they are the Ottawa Champions – champs of the Can-Am League in just their second season.

The Champions beat the Rockland Boulders to complete an unlikely comeback in this most unlikely championship run. Down 2-0 on their home field, they won three straight in Rockland to complete their dream season.

Road teams won every game in the series.

“I’m just so (bleeping) proud of you guys,” manager Hal Lanier told his players in a beer-soaked dressing room.

The Cuban players, Donal Duarte and Alexander Malleta, spoke to their teammates, through an interpreter. They leave for Cuba Sunday, and what a sendoff they just received.

“Tonight, this tops everything,” Lanier said a few minutes later, to the only reporter in the room.

Lanier has seen it all in baseball, from the low minors to the major leagues as a player and manager, yet he wore the sudden emotion proudly from this unexpected independent league title.

“This is something special, even at my age,” the 74-year-old Lanier said. “If you can’t get teary-eyed for that, something is wrong with you. I know there’s no crying in baseball, but I don’t give a damn.

“We dream about this. We make the club up, play hard for a hundred games, get into the playoffs, against New Jersey, then down two games here . . .”

Lanier had words of praise for Rockland manager Jamie Keefe, whom he respects greatly, and he thanked the few dozen Ottawa fans who made the trip to the final and made themselves heard at Palisades Park.

“I never stopped believing,” said president David Gourlay, drenched in beer. “What an amazing moment in the history of baseball in Ottawa and the history of the Ottawa Champions.

“It’s about resilience. These guys never gave up. They fought hard all year. We were always the underdog. Everybody at home is surprised, impressed and here we are – I’m soaked in beer.”

Ah, yes, the working-class celebration. Suds in a can.

It was not without drama. With one on in the ninth, Rockland’s Jared Schlehuber ripped a ball deep to left – if it’s fair, it ties the game. It stayed foul and Schlehuber struck out on the next pitch.

The Boulders put two on in the ninth, but with two out, Mike Montville popped up to third base. Ottawa third baseman Duarte cradled the popup like a baby, then tossed the ball high in the air in triumph.

From there, a mob scene erupted just beyond the pitching mound, as the dugout and bullpen emptied to swarm starter Austin Chrismon, who threw a complete-game gem.

In the handshake line with the Boulders, Champs and Rockland players embraced each other like the closest of friends.

Only in the free-spirited independent ball could this happen — Can-Am commissioner Miles Wolff presented the league trophy to the team he owns, the Ottawa Champions. Raising the golden mug was Gourlay.

Players and staff posed in front of the championship banner and took turns raising the trophy, as though it were the Stanley Cup. Baseball is a Canadian game, eh?

For the second straight game, the Champs received a masterful performance from their starter. This time it was Chrismon, the Can-Am pitcher of the year in 2016.

Chrismon gave up just six hits and had his command throughout. He threw 123 pitches, struck out eight and didn’t walk a batter.

“I left everything out there, man,” Chrismon said. “I’m kind of in shock, honestly. Being down in the first series, first game, we just kept fighting back. It was time for us. And it was awesome.”

It’s a mob scene after the final out in the Ottawa Champions’ series-deciding 3-1 win over Rockland.Drew Wohl /
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Evidence that the Champions had carryover mojo: for the third game in a row, they put up a 2-spot in the first inning. With Adron Chambers and Sebastien Boucher in scoring position, Kenny Bryant hit a ground ball to second base that just tipped off the glove of Pat McKenna for a single and two RBI.

The Champs should have added to that in the third, as Boucher had a couple of chances to score from third – on a wild pitch and a sacrifice fly – but held up on both. Lanier kept him at third on the potential sac fly to somewhat shallow left field. Ottawa left the bases full in the third.

Rockland got on the board in the fourth, when a double by Devin Harris brought in Marcus Nidiffer, who had singled and moved to second base on a fielder’s choice. That closed the gap to 2-1 and ended some of the grumbling in the stands.

The middle innings were all about enjoying the pitching duel between Chrismon and Rockland’s David Fischer.

Of the five games played in the series, finally a classic playoff baseball game evolved, with two aces of the staff facing each other and the top relievers ready for late inning work. Ottawa, chipped away at Fischer, delivering eight base hits through six innings. Through seven, Fischer had thrown 102 pitches, and he might have regretted coming back for the eighth.

Bryant led off the inning with a mighty blast to the right-field bleachers, ending Fischer’s night and giving the Champions a 3-1 lead. That home run was huge, considering how the Boulders threatened late in the game. Bryant drove in all three of Ottawa’s runs.

“I’ve never been in the playoffs before,” Bryan said. “To come out on top and win it all is the best feeling ever. And to do it with the same group we had pretty much from the beginning, that makes it even better.”

Chrismon, meanwhile, was the model of efficiency and the picture of control. Through seven, he had thrown just 93 pitches, 68 for strikes. Four times he retired the side in order.

Chrismon was so calm, he looked to be pitching an exhibition game rather than a championship final.

When it was over, he looked stunned in the Ottawa room, as though still in that zone he’d been in all precious night.

DIAMOND DEALS

Minor league parks struggle to attract fans after Labour Day, even for playoff finals. How else to explain the bargains offered by the Rockland Boulders for Game 5, a game they couldn’t pre-sell. Tickets — $5, college students — $1, first beer or coke free, then $2 for domestic beer and $3 for craft beers. For families, the ball club added the lure of a post-game fireworks show.

The Boulders led the Can-Am League in 2016 regular season attendance, averaging 2,934 (Ottawa was third at 2,454). But Friday’s Game 4, reliant on walk-up, drew just 1,247 on a pleasant evening

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